Hybrids of conductive polymer nanocomposites

Nanostructured hybrid polymeric materials based on carbon nanotubes (CNT):carbon black(CB) and CNT:carbon nanofibers (CNF) were fabricated by solution processing in a common good solvent for all components. The hybrid nanocomposites microstructure, electrical properties and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (SE) in the X-band frequency range were investigated. Generally speaking, no synergistic effect for the use of hybrid system on the electrical and EMI SE properties was found. However, because of the synergistic effect of nanofillers co-dispersion on conductive networks formation, it was found that an EMI SE and electrical conductivity similar to that of the 5 wt% CNT/ABS nanocomposite can be obtained by using a hybrid nanocomposite contains 4 wt% CNT and 1 wt% CB indicating that a reduction in the cost of the final nanocomposite can be achieved by utilizing the concept of hybrid nanofillers. Moreover, it was found that not only the nanofiller conductivity but also the nanofiller size and geometry should be considered in designing a hybrid nanocomposite.